Most disgusting sight seen while working with a vet

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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HGE poop does have a different smell doesn't it? First time i saw it was when my own dog had it. Awful and oddly memorable. Its that coagulating blood smell...

and that tongue story is a bit creepy. just a bit. I mean... couldn't you offer the cat something to scratch its tongue on instead of on you?
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The worst (not most disgusting, but most upsetting I guess) thing I have ever seen was a 2yo QH filly who'd had colic surgery three days earlier that died in her stall overnight. Her incision dehissed, she was septic and we'd tried to convince her owners to euthanise the night before. I found her early in the morning with intestines wrapped around her legs from where she'd panicked and scrambled around, all of the shavings were soaked with blood and she'd torn her caecum in the process. That was awful.

I've also seen a horse with a star picket fence post through his neck. That was pretty cool. He came in on the float like that, two hours out of town they lived and they just loaded him up, fence post in neck and all, and brought him in.

We get maggots alot. The worst is maggots in infected anal glands :eek:
 
Groominator said:
HGE poop does have a different smell doesn't it? First time i saw it was when my own dog had it. Awful and oddly memorable. Its that coagulating blood smell...

and that tongue story is a bit creepy. just a bit. I mean... couldn't you offer the cat something to scratch its tongue on instead of on you?
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haha. it's not that i offered myself.
every time we had to take the cat out to clean the cage or clean out its mouth, it would start purring and rub all over you.
it was just so sad, i couldn't just push it away.
although i did kind of want to vomit and i practically bleached my arm every time i touched the cat.
the cat was eventually PTS.
 
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aussiered said:
The worst (not most disgusting, but most upsetting I guess) thing I have ever seen was a 2yo QH filly who'd had colic surgery three days earlier that died in her stall overnight. Her incision dehissed, she was septic and we'd tried to convince her owners to euthanise the night before. I found her early in the morning with intestines wrapped around her legs from where she'd panicked and scrambled around, all of the shavings were soaked with blood and she'd torn her caecum in the process. That was awful.
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That is really sad :(
 
So many maggot stories!

My first, and most memorable, was a rottie who had been immobile for 2+ weeks. So sitting in his on feces and urine for disgusting amounts of time. Poor thing. "He hasn't been able to get up for 2 weeks and we finally decided to just bring him in." And then one of the male doctors bet one of the male high school students we had working for us to stick his head in the cadaver bag with the dog after the euthanasia. So the thought of the kid doing such a thing (for $20) and then his puking... yuck.

Hmm... A kitten with one eye sealed shut and swelling. Vet pries it open and there was a small geyser of pus.

But seriously, so many maggot stories! Owners brining them in for "worms" and then euthanizing because they can't afford to treat a maggot infested pet.

Prolapsed uterus. Can't remember what kind of dog it was, but it was medium sized and had pretty long hair and the uterus was just smelly and dragging on the floor.

That's all I got for now. I've seen lots of festering wounds where the owners... OH WAIT!

These people found a dog that appeared to have gotten some toes cut off in some sort of a trap. So stinky since everything was necrotic when he came in, but after months and months of bandage changes and procedures he had a nicely healed stump.

Back to work. And by work I mean unpacking and avoiding studying at all costs.
 
The worst sight I have seen wasn't with a vet, but working on a beef cow farm. When a pregnant cow didn't come down to eat one morning in mid July, we (me and the farmer) went to look for her. Well...we found her, lying there dead, about ready to pop (and I am not kidding, if I would have touched her, she would have popped). She had been there dead for at least a day. Flies and maggots just flowing out of every opening. You could even hear a hissing sound that sounds like an air compressor nozzle left on low (again like she was going to pop). We got the loader and dug a hole, and I had to rap a chain around her leg (I have a very strong stomach and nothing bothers me, but that smell could gag a maggot). We drug her into the hole and buried her. I will never forget that smell.
 
dreamvet said:
she would always rub against my arm and i would feel this dried lump scarping my arm, and it left behind a line of pus and discharge (from the base). The sacrifices we make to comfort our animal friends. . . . . :oops:
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That is the most terrible thing I have ever heard .. and yet I can't stop laughing! Out of complete discomfort and awkwardness! Wow, poor cat (and poor you!).
 
Raimes said:
I think the grossest thing I ever did smell was pyo in a hound.
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Not super gross, but that reminds me: I once helped with a spay surgery on an elderly chihuahua with a pyo. Before surgery, the dog weighed six pounds. Her uterus, when we took it out, weighed one. It was HUGE for such a little thing!

Also - the rabies stuff. One of my first days working at an animal control facility, a staff member called me into the back to come see something. He "surprised" me with a great big headless dog. I didn't think it was funny... :rolleyes:
 
bmichs75DVM said:
The worst sight I have seen wasn't with a vet, but working on a beef cow farm. When a pregnant cow didn't come down to eat one morning in mid July, we (me and the farmer) went to look for her. Well...we found her, lying there dead, about ready to pop (and I am not kidding, if I would have touched her, she would have popped). She had been there dead for at least a day. Flies and maggots just flowing out of every opening. You could even hear a hissing sound that sounds like an air compressor nozzle left on low (again like she was going to pop). We got the loader and dug a hole, and I had to rap a chain around her leg (I have a very strong stomach and nothing bothers me, but that smell could gag a maggot). We drug her into the hole and buried her. I will never forget that smell.
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Yeah, it is an unforgetable sight/smell, but I've seen this my whole life, so I'm use to it now. However, the county actually burries the cows for you where I'm from.
 
The most interesting thing I have ever seen happened on the overnight shift at an emergency clinic. A rat terrier was attacked by another dog. When the rat terrier came in I noticed something in it's mouth. When I removed the towel I found the dog eating its own intestines.
 
Grossest thing: a dead-for-several days HBC Westie (CA freeway kind of HBC) who was dropped off last night by owners for care of remains... it's eyeballs had exploded and were completely blackened bumpy lumps, its tongue was this stiff black cardboard-thing sticking out of it's mouth, and it had huge rip-wounds on its hind end, down to the muscle and bone. GNARLY!

Most Awesome Gross Thing: a Hit-by-harvester Anatolian Shep bitch who came in for enucleation sx. over the summer. The left side of her skull was just blown to bits, it was just this mass of raw tissue, with an eyeball staring up out of the middle of it. The surgeon was so impressed that he took photos!! They removed the eye, somehow patched up the side of her face, and she did great!! Actually she was pretty critical and throwing a crap-ton of VPCs right after the sx-- I literally sat with her for my whole 8 hour shift, timing VPC runs to make sure they didn't last too long... But by the morning she converted :D and went home all in one piece!

The other part of that story is that she had fallen into a cement drainage canal after being hit by the harvester, and she was obviously panicked, and she had literally worn her nails ENTIRELY away trying to scramble up the side of the drainage canal... OMG there were just little raw holes where her nails had been, poor girlie, we put little socklets on her to protect her feet b/c they were so sore. But her amazing head/eye wound was way grosser than her poor feet.

Anyway we are obviously all lunatics here haha

oh! I almost forgot! prolapsed uterus! GROSSSSS!
 
aussiered said:
The worst (not most disgusting, but most upsetting I guess) thing I have ever seen was a 2yo QH filly who'd had colic surgery three days earlier that died in her stall overnight. Her incision dehissed, she was septic and we'd tried to convince her owners to euthanise the night before. I found her early in the morning with intestines wrapped around her legs from where she'd panicked and scrambled around, all of the shavings were soaked with blood and she'd torn her caecum in the process. That was awful.
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That is truly disturbing [shudder].
 
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the idea if the suffering that went on is way worse than the visual that put in my head.
I can't believe they didn't PTS the animal when you told them to.
 
That sounds pretty gross/awesome, starlene! Thing is, my vet has two anatoli shep/gpy mixes and I keep picturing them in this dog's place, and that makes it really sad... I'm really quite attached to her dogs, especially the one she brings to work every day. :(
 
While I am highly enjoying this thread and all the disgustingness that comes with it, we did have an ethics lecture today, so let me just mention one thing...

obviously no one is mentioning names or clinics or towns or anything like that, but what if.... just what if the owner of the 'specific breed' dog from 'specific' state that had this 'specific problem/accident' came across this forum... i know i know, very unlikely... and I'm not discouraging any of this highly entertaining forum, but just think if your pet went through some horrifying event and then you later read it on this forum...

just thinking out loud
 
I agree with others, it's smell that gets me, not sight. I got one.

One morning when I was opening the clinic by myself (only me and a receptionist and a kennel tech there) for only the second or third time ever, a half-dead looking intact female chow chow gets carried in at 7:30 am on the dot (the doctors don't get there until 9). I took the dog to the back and called the vet who'd be coming in. It was the one who lived an hour away, of course. That was how I set my first IV catheter, with a tourniquet on a growling chow with a muzzle on. The only reason she wasn't more belligerent, I think, was that she didn't have the strength to get up. Aaaaanyway...

She was absolutely covered in maggots, squishing around under her skin through old wounds, in her ears, on her gums, in her vulva, everywhere. The reason I had to set the catheter with a tourniquet instead of a person holding for me was that the assistant who came in at 8 took one look at the dog and the maggots and bolted for the back. When the doctor got there we took rads and decided to go into surgery, because he suspected a closed pyometra. Sure enough, that's what it was. Unfortunately she died on the table, but when I brought the giant, distended uterine horns from surgery into the treatment area, one of the other vets decided she was going to cut one open and OH GOD THE STENCH that emanated from that. :hungover:
 
I think there are at least 2 that come to mind for me. One of them was when I was doing a wetlab at the vet school for a club that I was in. We were in a surgery building, and had to share the room with the dentistry club, which was using the room after us. When I first walked in, the first thing I saw on the tables were rows and rows of frozen dog and cat heads, some of them with their eyes still open. Just the heads. That was definitely a surprise for me and was slightly disturbing at the time lol.

Another one was when I was doing field research. We were trapping rodents and had to process them before letting them go. There was one mouse that we caught that had 3 botflies in it! After we removed them, the holes were so big, it looked like barely any part of the mouse existed anymore. And omg, botflies are so gross when they wiggle around. I don't know which are worse, though, botflies or maggots lol.
 
Could someone explain what warbles are?

I think most of my disgusting stories involve maggots and, for some reason, my clinic doesnt actually use anything to get rid of maggots, so we always end up picking them off...and I'm one of the few people who dont gag around maggots...lucky me :oops:. someone brought in this little tiny kitten that was laying by the side of the road. It was missing fur and maggots were just pouring out of this hole in its side, and i got to pick all the maggots out of the hole...yay

We had another cat that got dropped off that either ran away or was an outside cate that had recently gotten a PU surgery done and either there was a puncture wound or the maggots actually ate a hole between the rectum and the new PU opening we dont know. When we tried to squirt some kind of liquid, that looked like water-less shampoo, but I'm sure it wasnt, into the PU, it came out the rectum with maggots...the poor thing.

Ok, last one: we had an incredibly dehydrated, malnourished cat come in, and I mean seriously all skin and bones, it smelled so bad because it was just CAKED with dried, green-ish diarrhea. I was just an assistant at the time and for some reason everyone else had to leave so I was left just staying with the cat while it got sub-Q fluids...I petting it the whole time and when I was finally relieved....my hands and forearms were GREEN! I mean it got into my fingerprint ridges, my hair, scrubs, and skin reeked of diarrhea for the rest of the day...ick
 
halesvet said:
Could someone explain what warbles are?
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This is a nice case story with some lovely pictures (thank you google images!): http://www.greenbriervet.com/WARBLE.htm. Poor mitten!

halesvet said:
and I'm one of the few people who dont gag around maggots...lucky me :oops:.
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Me too! I alwasy get to pick out maggots, so much fun :p!! The spray we use is so old that I can't read the label but it is bright blue and it works like magic - you spray it and all the maggots come to the surface (rapidly) and slowly die.
 
Bot flies lay eggs that hatch into their larvae, called warbles or sometimes called bots. Some, like wildvet, also call the larvae bot flies, since they are technically baby bot flies. Mmmm... just pointing out that these are two names for the same thing.

Might as well work in a teaching lesson of sorts, lol.

Dermatobia hominis, commonly called the American Warble Fly, or Human Bot Fly...
"More specifically, following copulation a bot fly female will capture a mosquito, or in most cases some other hematophagous (blood-feeding) fly, in mid air where she proceeds to glue 10-50 eggs to its abdomen. These temperature-sensitive eggs develop and hatch in response to heat from the vertebrate host on which the vector feeds or lands. The larva may enter through the bite (or other) wound, along a hair follicle (West, Stanford website), or according to some reports, burrow directly into cutaneous tissue (Marinho et al., 2003) where the larva develops. The third-instar larva drops from its host 5-10 weeks later, burrows into the ground, pupates, and molts after 4-11 weeks to produce an adult bot fly."
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Source: http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/oestrid/Dermatobia hominis HOME.html
 
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Some people will refer to them as wolve's or wolve worms so if you've ever come upon one of those its the same thing. Twelvetigers gave a perfect explaination of what they are.

In very basic terms though, think of the way an alien is born in "alien". Just with less gore and it doesn't really leave for a while :p
 
sofficat said:
While I am highly enjoying this thread and all the disgustingness that comes with it, we did have an ethics lecture today, so let me just mention one thing...

obviously no one is mentioning names or clinics or towns or anything like that, but what if.... just what if the owner of the 'specific breed' dog from 'specific' state that had this 'specific problem/accident' came across this forum... i know i know, very unlikely... and I'm not discouraging any of this highly entertaining forum, but just think if your pet went through some horrifying event and then you later read it on this forum...

just thinking out loud
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Excellent point. I actually went and edited out some details from my post. I think it's less likely that an owner would recognize their animal (though it would be dreadful if they did) than a coworker or employer recognizing the situation and potentially getting upset.
 
Any stories about veterinarians/staff members practicing poor hygiene? Example: following an obviously bacteria-filled procedure (that most always will include handling poop), dipping an unwashed hand into a large bag of Sun Chips in the break room, one of those bags that was meant to be shared by several people (and not even think about washing your hands before)???? (this, and worse, I have seen over the last several years!!). - Yucky story calls for bad grammar...

AAAHHHH!
 
Hmmm i'd have to say a ferret necropsy...and yes, I accidentally nicked the scent gland. It was truly aweful...the stench was so bad you could taste it in your mouth - like a skunk but much worse!
 
I'd just like to say thank you... I was fantasizing about being a vet but I see that I will stay safely in my little psychology forum from now on
 
I rarely get squicked out over stuff. I have that same secret pleasure about abscesses and the like as most of you; I hated having zits but I sure liked popping them, lol (remember that scene in the Harry Potter books where they have to collect bobotuber pus? Maybe it's more common to like that kind of stuff than we think, lol). The maggots, intestines, road abrasions, etc, while all definitely memorable and tragic, have not registered in my nightmares.

But the warbles are kinda getting me, I must admit. I hope if I see one in real life I won't have the same kind of reaction, but I'm feeling faintly nauseous just reading the thread. I actually looked up warbles a couple weeks ago due to another post somewhere and came across that kitten photo from the briarvet site, and that is the one that got me.

I imagine that, like most things, you become somewhat desensitized over time and exposure? Please tell me it gets better!!

Other squicky stuff for me includes tapeworms and other large parasites (again, no personal experience with either). I used to have a leech phobia when I was a child, but I remember being very proud of myself on a trip to Nepal when other people were freaking out about the leeches, because I was completely calm and mature about it. They have never bothered me since. I hope it's the same with warbles and tapeworms and the like, should I encounter them!!

On the other hand I am actually quite fond of many things that people are often phobic about, such as tarantulas. I had a pinktoe that I thought was just gorgeous. Every time we visited the pacific northwest we'd bring home a bunch of banana slugs; those guys were so cool! And snakes are awesome (though my least favorite common domesticated species is ball python; too ugly and dull to the touch for my taste. Give me a corn snake or a boa and I'm happy). Of course, I was fortunate to have been raised with hundreds of species of exotics all during my childhood; my father has always been passionate about them, particularly herps.
 
Although maggots are a common thing to deal with at the shelter I work at, I have to admit that they really don't gross me out.

The worst thing I ever SAW (not smelled) was when I first started working at the clinic. A dog came in early one Friday morning that was hit by a car (or multiple cars) on the 6 lane freeway nearby. The dog was wheeled in to the clinic sitting up and alert but his right hind leg was completely filleted open - you could see all the shattered pieces of bone, muscles, tendons, everything just a mess and his paw was just hanging off the table - almost completely detached, just holding on by some skin.

I think it was then that I realized that if I could handle that, I could handle anything.

What happened...the dog was older and it was a risk to amputate, but the doctor decided to do it anyways to give him a fighting chance, but a few weeks later, he still wasn't doing well, no one claimed him (despite major press coverage) so we ended up putting him down. Sad...
 
There was a cat, let's name him "bob". Bob was just about 1 year old and was attacked by a raccoon. He was such as sweet cat. The clinic had to amputate a hind leg, and the partial of another. We did skin graphs, bare muscle was exposed. we kept this cat alive b/c the owner wanted to, for almost 6 weeks. Then the cat finally started to give up. You could see it in his eyes, personality.

The owner spent over $4,000 for this cat.

It was the worst, and most heart breaking thing I had ever seen in my life. I was told to dip the cat in betadine soln. one day. I could barely do it- my heart ached for this animal. This was so unfair.

Eventually, the owner agreed that the cat needed to be relieved from its' suffering.

Just b/c we can keep something alive, doesn't mean we should. This cat suffered for almost 6 weeks, b/c the owner didn't want to give up. yet, it s not the job of the vet to tell the owner to put the cat down. they can dance around the idea, but they can't come out and say it. I will never forget 'Bob'....ever. I learned a lot about vet med from the situation.
 
nyanko said:
Unfortunately she died on the table, but when I brought the giant, distended uterine horns from surgery into the treatment area, one of the other vets decided she was going to cut one open and OH GOD THE STENCH that emanated from that. :hungover:
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My favorite part of a pyo surgery (after making sure the dog is awake and stable, of course) is putting the uterus in a big metal dog food bowl, holding my nose, and slicing it with a scalpel. It's like the ultimate abscess.

Our hospital used to work with a local rescue, doing spays/neuters on dogs and cats that they had just taken in for free/low cost. One of the dogs they brought to us was a large female mix - they thought she was pregnant when they took her in, so they brought her to us to have her spayed ASAP. When we opened her up, she was much further along than anyone had anticipated - as in, a few days away from full term. There were six puppies, all with fur and spots and moving their tiny little paws, and they all had to die right there on the table. :( That one was really tough - it's not something we see too often in general practice.
 
AgtOrange said:
My favorite part of a pyo surgery (after making sure the dog is awake and stable, of course) is putting the uterus in a big metal dog food bowl, holding my nose, and slicing it with a scalpel. It's like the ultimate abscess.
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I second that one! The vets usually save it for me. So very satisfying....;)
 
I worked at Banfield and we had a dog come in from grooming on a stretcher because he couldn't walk, and who stunk so bad because he was covered with matted hair, maggots and infections all over his body. So we call the owners in and they tell us they thought he just needed a spa day and that was why they took him to grooming! They refused diagnostics or treatment of any kind so we recommended euthanasia and they were so delusional they thought he was fine and happy and wanted to take him home. Definitely the worse ting I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure our vet decided to report them for animal abuse.
 
I've seen my fair share of truly terrible things, but a few stand out.

A woman brought in a litter of kittens she found abandoned by her workplace. They were only about a week old. Something had attacked them and most were missing the tips of their paws. Maggots had started feasting on their feet. It looked like a nasty burrito - rotting skin shell with maggots packed inside. I was helping another tech remove them, one by one, with forceps. I was doing okay until I accidentally grabbed what I thought was a maggot and it turned out to be the kitten's skeletal toe. I've never thrown up in my mouth so many times in one day.

Another nasty one was a c-section on a dog that had started having puppies, but hadn't delivered the last two. We tried saving one puppy (it didn't work), but the other one had already started to decompose. It was starting to liquefy and smelled so horrible it made the doctor gag.

By far the worst was a dog that died in the hospital while its owners were on vacation (it had been sick to begin with, and they knew it probably wouldn't live). I forget what exactly it had, but it had to have been some sort of hemorrhagic thing because it was covered in bloody diarrhea. The techs in the kennel bagged it without cleaning it up and put it in the freezer. Fast forward to four days later: the owners are back in town and have decided they want to take the dog home to bury, but they want to see it first to make sure it's their dog. The vet and I had to dethaw this bloody diarrhea popsicle with towels and a hairdryer and make it presentable for the owners. It was disgusting.
 
Once at the vet school, I was wandering around looking for a doctor to relay some test results from the lab. When I found her, she was with a vet tech and they were both blow-drying a Labrador that had been in the freezer. It had qtips stuck up it's nose, and when a student walked by and asked about them, she said she didn't want it's nose to bleed... haha. That was actually kinda funny, in that sad way that things are funny when you're desensitized to these things.
 
AgtOrange said:
Our hospital used to work with a local rescue, doing spays/neuters on dogs and cats that they had just taken in for free/low cost. One of the dogs they brought to us was a large female mix - they thought she was pregnant when they took her in, so they brought her to us to have her spayed ASAP. When we opened her up, she was much further along than anyone had anticipated - as in, a few days away from full term. There were six puppies, all with fur and spots and moving their tiny little paws, and they all had to die right there on the table. :( That one was really tough - it's not something we see too often in general practice.
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Ugh, that is really hard. I've seen that with a dog and with cats a few times, too. It's so sad. :cry:
 
I have to agree, maggots are probably the worst thing I've seen. They are creepy and I feel them on me all day. We don't get them up North as much as the states in the South. Thank God for colder weather(except in the summer).

I also find abscesses fascinating! My previous employer(Manager at a hog farm) always made fun of me for it. He hated them. He rarely lanced them, let them go on for days. I love lancing them. Something about relieving the pressure, making the animal feel better and healthier is satisfying. And of course, the gore of some of the larger ones, with a liter of pus/blood/serum pouring out :D

As for smells, I would have to go with large animal fetotomies on that one. Holy smell! I may carry around a bottle of perfume or hand lotion and dab it under my nose when I have to do those again. Unfortunately, I have a very good nose. Gets in handy when looking for who has a Uterine infection in a barn though. Or the sweet smell of Scours, I can smell it right away when entering a farrowing room.

Necropsy on a 3 day dead bloated sow in summer heat is pretty gross but still fascinating. (The vet wasn't able to come over the weekend).

Speaking of gross things, how many significant others and friends of yours can you talk to about your work? I had a roommate and best friend(still is), she used to ask me how work was when I got home. Now, she knows better! LOL She takes one look at me, and says 'I don't want to know, lalalalala' Do you have people outside work and this forum that you can talk to about your daily duties and interesting, i.e. disgusting, cases?
 
wolfspeaker said:
As for smells, I would have to go with large animal fetotomies on that one. Holy smell! I may carry around a bottle of perfume or hand lotion and dab it under my nose when I have to do those again.
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I've also heard that the medicated lip balm (just the usual blistex stuff) works really well if you put it over your upper lip and line the inside of your nostrils. I've only really used it for extreme cold/windbreaking when I stupidly forget a scarf (go northern midwest winters!) but definitely can't smell anything else until I take it off. Anyone else have good suggestions for those of us with hypersensitive noses?

Speaking of gross things, how many significant others and friends of yours can you talk to about your work? I had a roommate and best friend(still is), she used to ask me how work was when I got home. Now, she knows better! LOL She takes one look at me, and says 'I don't want to know, lalalalala' Do you have people outside work and this forum that you can talk to about your daily duties and interesting, i.e. disgusting, cases?
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My husband's usually pretty OK with things, except for abscesses. I told him about everyone who agrees that they're satisfying on here, and he gave me one of his patented 'you're so nuts I can't even imagine where your brain comes from' looks; I think that's mostly the enjoyment factor, though, not the abscesses themselves.

My best friend is going to be heading to med school soon, and we trade stories - although we can't mention species. As soon as she mentions the word 'person' or I mention the word 'horse', the conversation has to end.

Anyone else have a severe differentiation between animal medical issues and human ones?
 
DVMorBust said:
My husband's usually pretty OK with things, except for abscesses. I told him about everyone who agrees that they're satisfying on here, and he gave me one of his patented 'you're so nuts I can't even imagine where your brain comes from' looks; I think that's mostly the enjoyment factor, though, not the abscesses themselves.
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That is half the fun! My fiance use to really get grossed out. At work one time I had helped with lambing. At one point I had to put my hand in the uterus because the lamb was a breech. I showered and washed my hands real good but my hand still smelled like sheep uterus for a couple of days! He was sooo grossed out! :laugh: But he is very supportive even if some of it grosses him out.
 
You all talk about maggots here, there and everywhere on these animals.
Ha!....I'm a trauma ER Radiographer (with an interest in Vet medicine... the radiology end of it) and I've seen my fill of them. Had a quadraplegic with an open leg would we had to xray...took the sheet off and the crater was full of 'em. It was a hot summer and apparently no one bothered to cover this poor guy's wound or place him where he'd be free of flies.

Then there was the homeless guy with cockaroaches in both ears....he kept hearing a buzzing sound and thought he was going crazy.

So I work with the "2 legged animals"....and have assisted in some procedures on the 4 legged ones. I'm 59 and enrolled in a vet tech (AA) program with hopes of working in a vet ER with radiographic specialities. Been in Radiology since 1970....I think it's time for a real change! :soexcited:

MotherBones ;)
 
A female pitbull was raped and bleeding profusely out of her vagina. The vet suspected it was cancer or an infection but quickly realized there was too much blood for it to be one of those options. We had to go inside and take a look. We didn't have any special tools for this investigation so the vet used a large ear cone. He discovered a large tear in the vaginal wall that just wasn't clotting. He said he had never seen this and wasn't taught how to fix it. He said "in horses we just put them down." He decided to inject epinephrine into the tissue to reduce blood flow to the area; (that's still a sub-q injection right? :p). Next, he needed to find a way to "clog" the spot in hope that a large blood clot could form. He decided to use a tanpon! We are both males so it was funny watching us trying to figure out how those things work. Pretty handy little things i must say. Not that gross of a story, but an interesting one.
 
My favorite story is the day two Ospreys came into the wildlife rehabilitation clinic I volunteer at.

They came in hypothermic because they had decided to start a fight over the retention pond of the sewage treatment plant and fell in. So after warming and drying them we began picking pieces of toilet paper out of their feathers. They were also covered with feather mites. Every time they flapped their wings we were showered with raw sewage and literally hundreds of feather mites. Unfortunately I had to go to a Microbiology exam afterward smelling lovely and crawling with mites, I didn't do well on the exam.

Both birds were fine and released in a couple of days.
 
DVMorBust said:
Anyone else have a severe differentiation between animal medical issues and human ones?
Click to expand...

Me! Too bad I can't mention that as one of the reasons I want to do vet med instead of human med, haha. :p I can clean up animal vomit all day....but human vomit? Bleck!
 
spyisis said:
My favorite story is the day two Ospreys came into the wildlife rehabilitation clinic I volunteer at.

They came in hypothermic because they had decided to start a fight over the retention pond of the sewage treatment plant and fell in. So after warming and drying them we began picking pieces of toilet paper out of their feathers. They were also covered with feather mites. Every time they flapped their wings we were showered with raw sewage and literally hundreds of feather mites. Unfortunately I had to go to a Microbiology exam afterward smelling lovely and crawling with mites, I didn't do well on the exam.

Both birds were fine and released in a couple of days.
Click to expand...

Yeah but were you and the other people that handled them okay?!?! I feel like there is a massive human health hazard here! Ugghghhhhh what a gross story! I would've wanted to wrap myself in layers of gowns and gloves and saran wrap before touching them... yuk!
 
Poochlover11 said:
Why on earth was the dog dragged by a truck?
Click to expand...

Usually it's because someone decides to let their dog ride in the back of a pickup truck (stupid). Then they realize the dog might jump/fall out (smart) so they use a rope to tie the dog's collar to the truck. But the rope is too long and allows the dog to reach all the way to the ground (stupid again).

Asphalt skiing is unfortunately not that uncommon of an injury in certain regions of the country.
 
My mom's an OB/GYN nurse practitioner. She'll tell me horror stories from her work (anonymized to protect her patients.) I've grown up on stories of tampons retained for months, gross descriptions of discharge over dinner, all sorts of disgusting stuff.

Last week I was telling her about something that had happened at my work, and she countered with a story of her work. I blurted out "Mom, you have the worst job ever." She was quiet for a few seconds, and said something like "you get puked on, defecated on, slobbered on, and you have to deal with your patients dying. YOU have the worst job ever." Touche. I guess its a good thing that neither one of us will have to deal with the other's profession. :)
 
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